Please, get real. If O doesn't object to the release of certain info, his Justice Dept. isn't going to prosecute. So if the hospital, say, contacted the WH and asked for their approval before release of a short and simple statement indicating that their records show O was born there (if indeed he was) and going no further than that, why would anyone object and why wouldn't the hospital do that? It would seem as if such a course would be benign for all concerned. But yet they haven't, and additionally have never responded in the affirmative to other queries about his possible birth there. It's not that they have any fear about prosecution under HIPAA, it's much more likely that they have no record of his birth there!
Please, get real...So if the hospital, say, contacted the WH and asked for their approval before release of a short and simple statement indicating that their records show O was born there (if indeed he was) and going no further than that, why would anyone object and why wouldn't the hospital do that?
This is something I know a bit about - hospitals take this very seriously. No hospital would risk the penalties on this, and they wouldn't ask someone "can we release your information?" They would need 0bama to initiate it.
There has been lots of discussion of these issues among hospital organizations, and the consensus is HIPAA standards are no different for celebrities and public figures than for other patients. I don't know if the justice department would prosecute, but I suspect they would just to enforce the standards that you can't release ANY medical information without express written permission.
One hospital fired several people and disciplined several more just for looking at a celebrity's record, not even revealing the information. In hospitals nowadays you look only at medical records of those you need to for medical reasons, and there's a trail to enforce it; the system is set up to record who looks at what. The result is that if you're smart, you don't even look at records you don't need to.